Toothed mobile part for play take-up in a gear, particularly in horology

ABSTRACT

A toothed mobile part ( 1 ) for play take-up in a gear, particularly in horology, having certain ( 7 ) of its teeth fixed and entirely rigid, and other ( 8 ) of its teeth each intercalated between two rigid teeth ( 7 ) and elastically deformable, is characterised in that said elastically deformable teeth ( 8 ) consist of spring blades each comprising a gear flank ( 9 ), and in that for each spring blade ( 8 ) the distance ( 12 ) measured on the pitch circle ( 13 ) of the mobile part ( 1 ), between the gear flank ( 9 ) of the spring blade ( 8 ) and the corresponding flank ( 10 ) of the one among the two adjacent rigid teeth ( 7 ) facing the gear flank ( 9 ) is smaller than the distance ( 14 ), again measured on the pitch circle ( 13 ) of mobile part ( 1 ), between the gear flank ( 9 ) and the corresponding flank ( 10 ) of the other adjacent rigid tooth ( 7 ).

The present invention relates to a toothed mobile part such as a wheel,pinion, or rack for a gear, particularly in horology.

It is known that in timepieces such as wristwatches, gear backlashdetracts from the display precision. In the case of an eccentric hand,for example, gear backlash may cause the hand to quaver under the effectof movements of the user. In displays with a retrograde hand, such asfor indication of the equation of time, the hand may start to move inthe other direction only when the plays have been taken up, a certaintime after inversion of the movement of the gear train driving it. Theplays of gears may accumulate within a given gear train. Plays thereforeare so much more important and detrimental the more gears exist in thegear train.

Toothed mobile parts allowing the play of a gear to be taken up havebeen described in patent applications WO 2004/008004, EP 1,555,584, andEP 1,744,081. These mobile parts have teeth that are larger than normalteeth in order to reduce the space between any two consecutive teeth,and thus to reduce or eliminate the play, but may become deformed ormove elastically in the case of gripping in order to avoid gearblocking. The elastic deformation or mobility of the teeth is obtainedby slots and/or hollows machined into the teeth or into the plate of themobile part. In certain embodiments proposed, the teeth consist of arigid segment and an elastic segment that may lean against the rigidsegment in the case of gripping. In other embodiments the teeth consistof two elastic segments that may lean against each other. In still otherembodiments, the teeth are rigid but linked elastically through flexibleblades to the plate of the mobile part. In an embodiment illustrated inFIG. 9 of document EP 1,555,584, every other tooth has a rigid segmentand an elastic segment, the remaining teeth are fixed and entirelyrigid.

It is a disadvantage of the toothed mobile parts for the takeup of playthat have been mentioned above, that they are only able to take up arelatively slight play, because the elastic segments of the teeth havesmall dimensions and during gripping of the gear must rapidly come upagainst a rigid segment in order not to overstep their elastic limit.

The present invention aims at remedying this disadvantage, and to thisend proposes a toothed mobile part for play take-up in a gear,particularly in horology, that has certain of its teeth fixed andentirely rigid, and other of its teeth each intercalated between two ofsaid rigid teeth and elastically deformable, characterised in that saidelastically deformable teeth consist of spring blades each having a gearflank, and in that for each spring blade the distance measured on thepitch circle of the mobile part, between the gear flank of the springblade and the corresponding flank of the one among the two adjacentrigid teeth facing the gear flank is smaller than the distance, againmeasured on the pitch circle of the mobile part, between the gear flankand the corresponding flank of the other adjacent rigid tooth.

The present invention also proposes a gear comprising a toothed mobilepart such as defined hereinabove, and a second mobile part engaged withthe toothed mobile part.

Particular embodiments of the invention are defined in the appendeddependent claims 2 to 4 and 6 to 9.

Further characteristics and advantages of the present invention willbecome apparent when reading the following detailed description ofseveral embodiments that is given while referring to the appendeddrawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a partial plan view of a play take-up gear according to afirst embodiment of the invention in a neutral position;

FIG. 2 is a partial plan view of the gear according to the firstembodiment of the invention in a position that follows the one of FIG.1,

FIG. 3 is a partial plan view of the gear according to the firstembodiment of the invention in a position that follows the one of FIG.2;

FIG. 4 is a plan view of a gear according to a second embodiment of theinvention;

FIG. 5 is a partial plan view of a gear according to a third embodimentof the invention.

Referring to FIGS. 1 to 3, a gear for a timepiece, and particularly awristwatch, according to a first embodiment of the invention comprises atoothed driving wheel 1 for play take-up and a driven pinion 2. In atypical, though not exclusive application of the invention, the arbor ofpinion 2 holds an indicator hand (not represented) moving above a dial,for instance a decentred seconds hand. The directions of rotation ofwheel 1 and pinion 2 are indicated by arrows 3, 4. In the examplerepresented, the inner part of the toothed wheel 1 is hollowed andincludes a felloe 5 and radial arms 6, but in a variant could be full.

Wheel 1 comprises teeth 7 regularly distributed over its periphery.These teeth 7 are fixed relative to the inner part 5, 6 of wheel 1. Inaddition, these teeth 7 are entirely rigid, that is, do not have anyelastic part. Every other tooth 7 has been omitted in order to make roomfor spring blades 8 intercalated between the teeth 7. Each spring blade8 is attached to felloe 5 by one of its ends while its other end isfree. Each spring blade 8 is curved and has a convex gear flank 9 whichin its functional top portion has a profile that is similar to that ofthe top portion of the corresponding flank 10 of the rigid teeth 7.

Each spring blade 8 thus plays the part of a tooth, and hence leaves twosufficiently large spaces between it and the two rigid teeth 7 betweenwhich it is located, in order to receive teeth 11 of pinion 2. Inaddition to their gear function, the spring blades 8 serve to take upthe gear play. To this end each spring blade 8 is closer to one of itstwo adjacent rigid teeth 7 than to the other. More precisely, thedistance 12 measured on the pitch circle 13 of wheel 1 between gearflank 9 of spring blade 8 and the corresponding flank 1 0 of the oneamong the two adjacent rigid teeth 7 facing the gear flank 9 is smallerthan the distance 14, again measured on the pitch circle 13, betweengear flank 9 and the corresponding flank 10 of the other adjacent rigidtooth 7. In other words, the gear flank 9 of each spring blade 8 iscloser to the adjacent rigid tooth 7 facing it than would be thecorresponding flank of a normal tooth shown in dotted lines at referencemark 15, if every other tooth 7 had not been replaced by spring blades8.

With this arrangement of the elastic blades 8, at least part of the gearplay can be taken up. For the purposes of taking up this playcompletely, the distance between each spring blade 8 and the rigid tooth7 that is closer to it is selected so that in a neutral position of thegear as shown in FIG. 1 where the line passing through the centre ofpinion 2 and the tip of one 11 a of the teeth 11 of pinion 2 coincideswith the line 16 passing through the respective centres of pinion 2 andwheel 1 (“line of centres”), and where said tooth 11 a is locatedbetween the gear flank 9 a of one spring blade 8 a and one rigid tooth 7a, said tooth 11 a is slightly pressed against the rigid tooth 7 a byspring blade 8 a.

Torque transmission between wheel 1 and pinion 2 is secured in largepart by the rigid teeth 7, and in small part only by the spring blades8. FIG. 2 shows a position that follows the one illustrated in FIG. 1.From the position of FIG. 1 to that of FIG. 2, tooth 11 a of pinion 2 isfirst driven by spring blade 8 a, but soon it is the rigid tooth 7 athat takes over, by pushing a downstream tooth 11 b of pinion 2. Alittle later (FIG. 3) the rigid tooth 7 a still pushes the downstreamtooth 11 b of pinion 2 while an upstream tooth 11 c of pinion 2 issimultaneously pushed by the rigid tooth 7 b located on the other sideof spring blade 8 a. In the positions of FIGS. 2 and 3, spring blade 8 ais elastically tensioned by tooth 11 a in order not to block the gear.This tension is limited to a value below the elastic limit of blade 8 a,by the double contact between the rigid teeth 7 a, 7 b and the teeth 11b, 11 c of pinion 2.

In the neutral position illustrated in FIG. 1, the gear is without play.In the positions illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3, when an abrupt movementof the user or an impact causes the contact between the rigid teeth 7 a,7 b and the teeth 11 b, 11 c of pinion 2 to be lost, the solicitedspring blade 8 a will immediately take up the play by pushing tooth 11 aof pinion 2 against the rigid tooth 7 a, and thus prevent a quavering ofpinion 2 and of the hand that is rigidly connected with it.

The gear according to the invention may equally well function in thedirection opposite to that indicated by arrows 3, 4. Besides, in avariant the pinion 2 could be the driving mobile part, and wheel 1 couldbe the driven mobile part.

FIG. 4 shows a second embodiment of the invention in which the drivingwheel has been replaced by a rack 20 with like teeth. This rack 20performs a to-and-fro movement for a retrograde display of somequantity, for example the equation of time, by the hand that is rigidlyconnected with pinion 2. By taking up the play, the spring blades 8 ofrack 20 allow pinion 2 to be driven in the opposite direction,immediately after an inversion of the direction of rotation of rack 20.

The spring blades 8 of the gear according to the invention haveadvantages over the elastic segments of the play take up teeth describedin the prior art, in that their shapes and dimensions can be selectedwith much greater freedom, since they are located in a larger spacegained by omitting every other tooth 7. The spring blades 8 thus canhave larger dimensions, that is, a larger thickness and greater length,and hence a larger force and/or larger deformability than the elasticsegments cited above. It will be observed in this respect that the teethof wheel 1 and rack 20 in the embodiments represented in the figures aredistinctly deeper than usual teeth. Such a depth raises perceptibly thedeformability of spring blades 8. These blades may thus take up a largerplay, so that the gear according to the invention will be less sensitiveto variations in the distance of centres, that is, variations in thedistance between the centres of wheel 1 (or rack 20) and pinion 2. Itwill also be observed that the torque transmitted between wheel 1 (orrack 20) and pinion 2 remains large on account of the fact that thistorque is transmitted essentially by the rigid teeth 7.

A third embodiment of the gear according to the invention is representedin FIG. 5. In this third embodiment, the gear comprises a toothed wheel30 and a pinion 31. The teeth of wheel 30 consist of fixed, rigid teeth32 alternating with teeth 33 forming spring blades. Each spring blade 33has a more pronounced curvature than the blades 8 of the precedingembodiments, so that it may come closer to its associated rigid tooth 32while preserving a great length, and thus a large deformability. Inaddition, each spring blade 33 rises from the bottom 34 of the otherrigid tooth 32 that is adjacent to it, which facilitates having a strongcurvature for these spring blades 33, and at the same time furnishes aparticular aesthetic aspect to teeth 32, 33, and wheel 30.

Thus, the convex gear flank 35 of each spring blade 33 faces a convexflank 37 of a rigid tooth 32, and is very close to it on the pitchcircle 36 of wheel 30. In a neutral position of the gear, as representedin FIG. 5 where one tooth 38 of the pinion is situated between a springblade 33 a and the associated rigid tooth 32 a on the line of centres39, said tooth 38 thus is rather strongly squeezed between the springblade 33 a and the rigid tooth 32 a, so as to produce a click whichpositions wheel 30 and pinion 31 angularly relative to each other. Thegear thus may turn by consecutive jumps, and stop each time in a welldefined angular position. This gear positioning is only obtained by thesqueezing action exerted by the solicited spring blade 33 a. In this wayone avoids having to fall back on a jumper spring that would cooperatewith a pinion rigidly connected with wheel 30. The gear type representedin FIG. 5 may for instance be utilized to rotate a hand indicating thedate, the days of the week, or the months.

The present invention has hereinabove been described, only by way ofexample. It goes without saying that modifications could be made withoutleaving the scope of the invention claimed. One could notably envisagedifferent numbers of rigid and elastic teeth on the play take up mobilepart. One could for example envisage that only one tooth out of three inthe play take up mobile part would be a spring blade, provided that theother mobile part, in this case the pinion, would have a sufficientnumber of teeth.

1. Toothed mobile part (1) for play take-up in a gear, particularly inhorology, having certain (7) of its teeth fixed and entirely rigid, andother (8) of its teeth each intercalated between two of said rigid teeth(7) and elastically deformable, characterised in that said elasticallydeformable teeth (8) consist of spring blades each comprising a gearflank (9), and in that for each spring blade (8) the distance (12)measured on the pitch circle (13) of the mobile part (1), between thegear flank (9) of the spring blade (8) and the corresponding flank (10)of the one among the two adjacent rigid teeth (7) facing the gear flank(9) is smaller than the distance (14), again measured on the pitchcircle (13) of mobile part (1), between the gear flank (9) and thecorresponding flank (10) of the other adjacent rigid tooth (7). 2.Toothed mobile part according to claim 1, characterised in that everyother tooth among its teeth is a rigid tooth (7), and every other toothis a spring blade (8).
 3. Toothed mobile part according to claim 1,characterised in that it consists of a wheel (1; 30).
 4. Toothed mobilepart according to claim 1, characterised in that it consists of a rack(20).
 5. Gear comprising a first mobile part (1; 20; 30) according toclaim 1, and a second mobile part (2; 31) engaged with the first mobilepart.
 6. Gear according to claim 5, characterised in that the gear flank(9; 35) of each spring blade (8; 33) is sufficiently close to the rigidtooth (7; 32) that it faces, so that in a position where one (ha; 38) ofthe teeth of the second mobile part (2; 31) is situated between the gearflank (9; 35) of a spring blade (8 a; 33 a) and a rigid tooth (7 a, 32a) and on the line (16; 39) passing through the respective centres ofthe first and second mobiles (1, 2; 30, 31), said tooth (11 a; 38) ofthe second mobile part (2; 31) is squeezed against said rigid tooth (7a; 32 a) by said spring blade (8 a; 33 a).
 7. Gear according to claim 8,characterised in that the gear flank (35) of each spring blade (33) issufficiently close to the rigid tooth (32) that it faces, so that themobile parts (30, 31) will be able to be angularly positioned relativeto each other to positions where one tooth (38) of the second mobilepart (31) is situated between the gear flank (35) of one spring blade(33 a) and one rigid tooth (32 a) and on said line (39), only throughthe squeezing action exerted by said spring blade (33 a) on said tooth(38) of the second mobile part (31).
 8. Gear according to claim 7,characterised in that the spring blades (33) are curved, and each risefrom the bottom (34) of a rigid tooth (32).
 9. Gear according to claim5, characterised in that the second mobile part (2: 31) is a pinion. 10.Toothed mobile part according to claim 2, characterised in that itconsists of a wheel (1; 30).
 11. Toothed mobile part according to claim2, characterised in that it consists of a rack (20).
 12. Gear comprisinga first mobile part (1; 20; 30) according to claim 2, and a secondmobile part (2; 31) engaged with the first mobile part.
 13. Gearcomprising a first mobile part (1; 20; 30) according to claim 3, and asecond mobile part (2; 31) engaged with the first mobile part.
 14. Gearcomprising a first mobile part (1; 20; 30) according to claim 4, and asecond mobile part (2; 31) engaged with the first mobile part.
 15. Gearaccording to claim 6, characterised in that the second mobile part (2:31) is a pinion.
 16. Gear according to claim 7, characterised in thatthe second mobile part (2: 31) is a pinion.
 17. Gear according to claim8, characterised in that the second mobile part (2: 31) is a pinion.